Okay, you know the drill by now: just because it's in a patent doesn't mean it's happening anytime soon, if ever. With that said, we'd love to see what Nokia had in mind when they concocted this one. As Unwired View recently unearthed, the Finnish phone maker has drawn up a design doc / patent application for comfortable, stretchable material that fits over your skin and is used for device interaction. Gestures and stretches are computed and signaled into nearby computers, phones, or interestingly enough "near-eye displays" -- sounds like we're getting into a bit of virtual / augmented reality territory here -- and they are also tailored to provide feedback via vibration. Again, don't hold your breath on seeing this come to fruition any point in the near (or even long) future, but still, we know what you're thinking: Nokia's gonna have to think of a ton of kooky color descriptions to accentuate any future lineup of input wristbands / fingerbands.

[Via Pocket-lint]

Augmented reality applications to this point could be best categorized as tantalizing to the mind, but otherwise pointless. Thankfully, it seems as if that's no longer the case. AcrossAir, a nascent app builder for the iPhone, has conjured up a slickly executed digital guidance application that augments video with real-time distance and directions to the nearest subway station. With the iPhone 3GS pimping an improved camera, inbuilt compass and GPS, we had a hunch that it wouldn't be long before someone slammed them all together and gave commuters and tourists alike a reason to smile. Presently only capable of serving up directions in London, this app should find plenty of user interest that will hopefully drive its development for other metropolises around the world. Click through to check it out for yourself, and expect to see it ready for download as soon as someone (or something) at Cupertino decides to start approving live video programs. Any day now, Apple...

[Via Tokyo-Genki]

We had a chance to go hands-on with Layar, the new augmented reality browser from SPRXmobile. Launched yesterday on Android Market in The Netherlands, we were curious to see how the software, that looked damn-impressive in the promo video, would function in actual use, in this case, from the living room of SPRXmobile's Maarten Lens-FitzGerald just outside of Amsterdam. Our take? it's the real-deal, especially for a v1 release. The software looks rock-solid and the initial data layers -- ATMs, social joints like cafes and clubs, and job listings -- appear fully populated and thus, useful. The ATM and cafe/club layers (or layars) are definitely helpful for serendipitous discovery though we're still scratching our heads over the job search layar. See, what you're discovering are jobs you can apply for from that particular employment office, not jobs necessarily available in that specific neighborhood or office building. Next month, Layar will have access to what could be its killer app (or killer data layar) called Funda, the site in The Netherlands for finding places to rent or buy. Of course, you can imagine travel guide companies like Let's Go and Frommers jumping into this with huge effect as well. And really, it's content that's going to make this type of augmented reality software a success. Maarten tells us that more partner announcements are expected this week with expansion into the US, Germany, and UK anticipated later this year on Android devices and on the iPhone 3G S (compass required). Check the interview and demo after the break.

Update: New layers announced including Google local search (that's a ton of content), Tweets Nearby (exactly what it sounds like), and ANWB (Dutch AAA) coming in July.

This one's been a long time coming but it looks like Dutch company SPRXmobile has launched the world's first Augmented Reality browser. Layar, as it's called, runs on Android and aggregates the data from the cellphone's compass and GPS coordinates to understand where you're standing and what you're looking at. A "radar view" then applies a visual information layer on top of the camera display as you pan around your environment. Content partnerships including a local bank, social networking site, and a realty company allows Layar to identify houses for sale, nearby ATMs, and local clubs and bars all laid out visually on your cellphone's display. Layar will be available this month in The Netherlands via the Android Market for phones such as the G1 and HTC Magic. It will launch in the US, Germany, and the UK sometime later this year with the iPhone 3G S listed as a primary target platform. Looks great with plenty of data populated in the video sample (posted after the break) but we have to wonder how well it works in day-to-day reality.

Update: As pointed out by a number of readers, calling this a world's first is a bit of stretch considering apps like Wikitude (a travel guide) and NRU. When pressed, SPRXmobile said they are a world's first AR browser platform.

Ready for a double dose of Tegra newsbits? We've been wondering what's packed in the Zune HD for some time now, but apparently PC Perspective has had the answer since Computex and didn't realize the newsworthiness until now. According to the article, NVIDIA staffers told the site that its uber-powerful Tegra processor will be the heart and soul of Microsoft's revised PMP. There's been no official word from anyone, and for all we know it might've been some (possibly misinformed) employee mouthing off for kicks. If true, however, it'd be one helluva 'screw you' from Microsoft to Windows Mobile fans, who've been waiting over a year at this point to see some retail hardware running on NVIDIA's mobile platform. We've put in calls to both companies for some sort of statement, but we're not getting our hopes up.

In other news, a group of researchers from Georgia Tech and Savannah College of Art and Design are showing off some of CPU's impressive potential with an augmented reality game ARhrrrr. Using a Tegra-powered mobile dev kit, the game projects a 3D town based on a two-dimensional diagram where you tap the screen to shoot zombies, or lay Skittles in real life to serve as virtual bombs. We've seen similar implementations before, but we're admittedly quite infatuated with this one, and as a bonus, there's video of the demo after the break.

Read - Zune HD uses NVIDIA Tegra processor
Read - Augmented Environments Lab: ARhrrrr!

If you find the idea of turntablism without the hardware intriguing, but last year's surface-based TRAKTOR Scratch DJ system was just a little too abstract for your tastes, here's a rather clever compromise from Cambridge-based designerTodd Vanderlin. Using a vinyl record equipped with an AR marker, he manipulates the music by moving in front of a video camera. It's also got the added bonus of being able to control the beat across a three-dimensional space, and if you're viewing it through the camera's feed, the middle marker's replaced by pre-set visuals. Direct your browser to after the break for a video demonstration.

This is not the most prurient example of augmented reality we've seen, and it may not have an obvious movie tie-in, but we will give it bonus points for being educational. Visitors to an exhibit titled "A Future for the Past," currently at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, can peep context specific info and virtual reconstructions of Satricum and the Forum Romanum, superimposed on large scale photographs of each respective site. There are two types of hardware on hand -- both the MovableScreen-packin' iMac stationary display and the UMPC devices allow the user to seemingly view through the photos, exploring specific points of interest. There's no telling how much a setup like this would run you if you wanted to, for example, let your friends and neighbors virtually peruse that massive Lego city you built in the garage, but make sure you let us know when you get it up and running. That would be so sweet. Video after the break.

Nintendo ain't the only company making waves at the Game Developers Conference this year -- oh no, we've also got Vuzix gettin' down and dirty with a brand new addition to its video eyewear segment. Said outfit has teamed up with metaio in order to showcase a new Augmented Reality Accessory Kit for the VR920 head-mounted display. The bundle will include the CamAR -- a clip-on USB camera that is designed to accurately track objects and the user's position in three-dimensional space -- along with the PhasAR wireless augmented reality input controller. When these are used in unison, users are able to simultaneously see what's going on in the Matrix and in the display. For instance, imagine reading a book that's tied into a program on the VR920; as you read along, images can pop up and complement the text. Far out, right? The full release is after the break, and we've been told that the attachment should sell for around $100 on top of the $399 VR920 when it ships around mid-Summer.

We've got ourselves some video of MIT's new "sixth sense" project, which really helps explain the concept. MIT basically plans to augment reality with a pendant picoprojector: hold up an object at the store and the device blasts relevant information onto it (like environmental stats, for instance), which can be browsed and manipulated with hand gestures. The "sixth sense" in question is the internet, which naturally supplies the data, and that can be just about anything -- MIT has shown off the device projecting information about a person you meet at a party on that actual person (pictured), projecting flight status on a boarding pass, along with an entire non-contextual interface for reading email or making calls. It's pretty interesting technology, that, like many MIT Media Lab projects, makes the wearer look like a complete dork -- if the projector doesn't give it away, the colored finger bands the device uses to detect finger motion certainly might. There are patents already in the works for the technology, which the MIT folks have been working on "night and day" for the past four months, and we're guessing (and hoping) this isn't the last we'll see of this stuff. Video is after the break.

We're not going to make any judgments regarding the hentai-tastic Cyber Figure Alice, but let's just say this product is of questionable purpose. Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc. calls this little gadget a good example of augmented reality, the coming-together of virtual and real objects. In essence, Dennou Figure ARis comes with two "cybercubes" and two "cybersticks." Using a webcam, the software projects Alice on the cybercubes. You can then, uh, manipulate her using the cybersticks, undress her, touch her, change her clothes, and, well, we'll leave the rest up to you, you naughty little thing, you. Look for her this fall in the dark underworld of your import shop if you must.

[Via CrunchGear]